Wednesday, April 11, 2012

The time has come to pack up/sell/get rid of all of our possessions here. We leave in one week. Cash and Cosette are so excited. Fox and I are super anxious and will give a sigh of relief once we get on the final leg of our journey. We are flying from Osaka to Beijing with a 2-hr. layover there and then on to L.A.
This past year has had its ups and downs. We came out here expecting to be here for a long time, and here we are: returning to the U.S. with no job, no car, no apartment. It is definitely a scary time, but I know we will get where we are going soon!

I am so grateful for the opportunity our children have had to be able to experience Japan this past year. They have learned so much. They can navigate a playground and chit-chat in Japanese. They ask for miso soup over pancakes and onigiri over pizza. They have learned origami, chopstick eating, and have been relished with attention by all the many adults they have come in contact with. Cash has his best friends here, but we're hoping they can come visit us in the U.S. soon.

Although it did cause me some anxiety, I am so grateful that I was able to give birth in a culture that supports natural childbirth and takes very good care of mothers. I am so beyond blessed that the members of our church fed my family for two weeks! Quincy has a super cool birth certificate and blessing certificate and hopefully those won't be his only reminders of life here.

I know this is getting long, but I thought it would be good to do another looking forward post! We are looking forward to everything on that list, plus:

--Real butter. Yep, we've been using margarine. And powdered milk. And artificial cheese. Japan just does not have the grazing land to produce many real dairy products.

--Grape Nuts! I have been craving them for 8 months!

--Greek Yogurt

--Sweet Potatoes. Parsnips. I love my root vegetables!

--Cottage Cheese

--Turkey sandwiches on wheat bread.

-- Visiting/Home Teaching/Teachers--it just doesn't get done here.

-- Good lotion, baby products, and make-up! Asian skin is much different than American skin, and all of the products are watery. I paid over $10 for a small tube of lotion that was thick.

--Movies and books we've not had access to here. I've got a long list of movies and books to check out.

--And magazines--I am a magazine junkie and have not picked up an English magazine for over 6 months, which is a record! Our first time here, I splurged and had a magazine subscription.

--Grass! The occasional park here will have grass, but my kids have not felt grass under their feet for about a year.

So, yes, we will miss Japan, but we are looking forward to our next adventure!